I have the Cold From Hell right now, to the point that earlier today I pretty much completely lost my sense of smell and taste. I can taste a little sweet/bitter/salty/sour, but not distinguish between different sources. A spoonful of honey tasted pretty much the same as the elderberry cough syrup, and a coffee bean just tasted gritty and mildly unpleasant. I can’t smell the Vick’s VapoRub I have slathered on me, even if I stick my nose in the jar and huff.

Anyway, the point is that I’m pretty miserable, but yesterday was redeemed by finding an awesome comic: Gunnerkrigg Court. Cam and I went to the library yesterday afternoon and picked up a stack of interesting-looking books for the low-brain-powered, since we’re both coming down with Teh Crud. (I’ve already read the zombies-at-the-prom YA novel, Bloodline and its sequel, and a Fables book that I thought I hadn’t read, but it turns out I had.) One of the impulse books we picked up was Gunnerkrigg Court: Orientation, the first book of a webcomic I’d never heard of before. It started off kind of slowly, but after the first chapter, I was completely sucked in.

Amazon tells me that people who buy this book also buy a lot of Girl Genius, which makes sense. The world of Gunnerkrigg Court does have some similarities with the world of Agatha Heterodyne–the main character’s best friend is clearly a Spark, or would be in that universe. But it’s not just about the technology, since there’s also magic in the world. The divide between the city/tech part of the world and the forest/magic part is what drives the story once the introductions are over with, and it does so in a way that always seems to ask more questions than it answers. When I reached the end of the book, I went straight to the web site and caught up with the rest of the story so far. And then I donated $10 to the author, who seems like he could use a hug.

I don’t think it’s just the possible fever talking when I say that Gunnerkrigg Court is completely awesome. It has robots, dragons, preternaturally competent 7th-graders, mysterious backstory, boarding school, psychic powers, psychopomps dropping by to visit, Reynard and Coyote, ghosts, destiny… the works. Oh, and the art style is great, especially when Coyote is involved.

Now I’m off to order a copy of the first volume and probably preorder a copy of the second volume for myself, because this one’s a keeper and stealing from the library is wrong.

Read 2 comments

First of all I would like to welcome you at the club LOL Sounds like you are suffering a bad cold as I am right now. So GET WELL SOON!
What concerns Gunnerkrig Court so you got me really curious and I will check it out. Unfortunately I do not have much time to read, but who knows, I might like it and might just take the time reading it.
So thanks for the good post and get well again.